Noyce CCQCs Part 2

     All of the characters in the novel begin to feel a growing sense of powerlessness as the story progresses into the second part, the men especially. When Delaney’s car is stolen, presumably by a Mexican, he goes to get a new one, “He felt violated, taken, ripped off—and nobody batted an eyelash, happens all the time…but the way people just seemed to accept the whole thing as if they were talking about the weather was what really got him,” (146). This juxtaposed with the previous scene where América is truly violated by two men and while the sense of powerlessness is becoming more intense, for Delaney, he seems very ignorant when he becomes so upset while others are suffering much more than he is. When Delaney and Kyra do try to do something for an animal that was suffering in a car they get in a confrontation with the owner of the car and dog; “’Why don’t you just fuck off, lady?’…Delaney pulled Kyra aside and the Jeep was gone, a belligerent cloud of exhaust left hanging in its place. Kyra was trembling. So was Delaney,”(153). They feel very confused and have lost a large amount of the power they had and felt at the beginning of the book. As this happens to the white couple, Cándido remembers his experience with immigration officials during an earlier time in the United States; “When La Migra nailed him, and now he stood in a line with all the hopeless others…and the Mexicans…never thought to run or flex a muscle or even move. It was the Mexican way: acquiesce, accept. Things would change…but only if God willed it,”(172). Most of the illegal immigrants do not want to have to be doing an illegal act, and due to this, do not feel the urge to run from deportation. They feel powerless to change the system and do not try. They have faith that the system will eventually change, but from a higher power, not themselves. The four main characters lives are becoming increasingly difficult, though it is obvious América and Cándido have the more difficult existence. The hope that they especially had in when they first arrived in the US is beginning to fade as their conditions do not improve and are left feeling hopeless to change anything.

     In the second section of The Tortilla Curtain, Delaney begins to wrestle with his conflicting feelings about immigration; one side of him as a liberal humanist, but the other as a fearful man who wants to protect himself and his family. After his car is stolen, Delaney starts to feel differently towards the world, he begins to act differently, as he goes to hike, but instead watches his brand new car parked on the side of the road; “Suddenly, without thinking, he shrank into the brush no more than a hundred yards from the road…He was being paranoiac, that was all—you couldn’t hold on to everything, could you? He knew that, but for that moment he didn’t care. He was just going to sit here…sit here and watch,”(156). In the rational part of Delaney’s brain he tries to acknowledge that this is crazy, but he can’t seem to stop. When Kyra talks to him about the dismantling of the labor exchange, he feels very conflicted, “Delaney didn’t know what to say. He was wrestling with his feelings, trying to reconcile the theoretical and the actual,” (185). This change comes in part from the people with whom he begins to surround himself, such as Jack Jardine and the rest of his neighbors. When at the party the topic shifts to discuss a wall around the housing community, Delaney makes a joke, but realizes everyone is completely serious, “’Isn’t the gate enough? Next thing you’ll want to wall the whole place in like a medieval city or something—‘ Delaney had expected laughter…but he was met with silence…Wall the place in. That was exactly what they intended to do,”(189). Delaney, because of the events that have taken place, yet also through those who he begins to associate with, has issues dealing with what to do when the issues he has humanist opinions about become reality. In theory one can believe in immigration, but the reality is proving to Delaney it’s not a simple problem.